Award ticket upgrade?

Hi,

I have a flight tomorrow morning and booked an award ticket for my trip.

I'm a UA Gold elite, so expected to get an upgrade is there is space.

I checked in and still there are 8 seats are available now. But even I check

'upgrade standby list', I can't find my name on it.

I live in Canada, so I don't have UA credit card, is that mandatory to hold

and pay taxes and fees using UA co-CC to expect my name on standby list

in case of award ticket?:confused: